Classification

Having mentioned Dewey, LCC and the USGS classifications recently it seemed to be a good time to mention a few classification schemes. The American Physical Society publishes The Physics and Astronomy Classification Scheme.

"This Classification Scheme, on the other hand, is arranged hierarchically, by subdivision of the whole spectrum of subject matter in physics- and astronomy-related sciences into segments and then repeating the process of subdivision down to four levels. The advantages of a hierarchical scheme over the alphabetical arrangement include: like subjects can be found grouped closely together; and browsing up or down near any entry will reveal closely-related entries."

For Math, there is the Mathematics Subject Classification from the American Mathematical Society.

"(MSC) is used to categorize items covered by the two reviewing databases, Mathematical Reviews (MR) and Zentralblatt MATH (Zbl). The MSC is broken down into over 5,000 two-, three-, and five-digit classifications, each corresponding to a discipline of mathematics."

"The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) has replaced the U.S. Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. NAICS will reshape the way we view our changing economy.

NAICS was developed jointly by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to provide new comparability in statistics about business activity across North America."

Catalogs

I've found another free open-source library catalog in beta test. Here is their description:

OpenBiblio is an easy to use, open source, automated library system written in PHP containing OPAC, circulation, cataloging, and staff administration functionality. The purpose of this project is to provide a cost effective library automation solution for small schools or small public libraries.

Not Cataloging - But Good Ideas

I've come across two very good ideas recently. Walt Crawford has this proposal:

"COWLZ: the [Caucus/Coalition/Consortium/Cluster] of Online and Web-based Library-related Zines/Newsletters....

I've built a COWLZ folder in my Notes Mail space. With a little encouragement, I'd set up a COWLZ Topica list, even with the growing ad overhead of Topica-unless someone offers a no-ad list environment to help semi-organize COWLZ.

This is a call to proprietors of online and Web-based library-related zines and newsletters to do one of two things: Respond with indications of interest and the extent to which you're willing to be involved-or respond with a clear message that this is a stupid idea and you want nothing to do with it. For now, send email to me: wcc@notes.rlg.org. Include "COWLZ" beginning the subject line."

The other idea came from the latest Library Journal column Inside Track by Francine Fialkoff, a Library Most Read List to exist along side the best sellers lists.

"I've already spoken with several librarians who've said they'd participate, including Robert White at the above-mentioned Bergen County system, Julie Pringle at Fairfax County Public Library, VA, and David Domkoski at Tacoma Public Library. If you're interested, contact me at fialkoff@lj.cahners.com. As White said when we spoke, "We've failed politically to send a message to the powers that be about the clout of libraries." We must change that."

LC Classification

A new product from LC. It has a reasonable price structure and worked fairly well in the beta test.

"Great news! We are pleased to announce that Classification Web will be available as a subscription service on June 1, 2002. Subscription options, prices, and important information follow....

The Cataloging Distribution Service (CDS) will begin taking orders beginning May 1, 2002 in anticipation of the June 1 launch date. Application forms and further ordering information will be available at the CDS Web site by May 1. Check http://lcweb.loc.gov/cds/classweb.html for future product updates and application information."

Dublin Core & Open Archives Initiative

This just came in. It is good to see the convergence of various streams of work into a river of useful tools.

DCMI and OAI are pleased to announce an XML schema for unqualified DC metadata that facilitates the declaration of modular metadata components.

The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative and the Open Archives Initiative have been cooperating on metadata issues for some time. Unqualified DC metadata is the default metadata set used in the OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting, intended to promote cross-domain interoperability. Other, domain-specific sets are encouraged as well, as envisaged in the modular metadata framework that both communities have been striving for.

This schema has been developed for use with the OAI Protocol, and has been discussed at length in the DC-Architecture working group. It is expected that the schema will be of use for other applications as well, and will be hosted on the DCMI Website and maintained by representatives of both groups.


This development is an important landmark in the development of web-based metadata services, reflecting as it does the convergence of community consensus and the development of enabling infrastructure to support that consensus.

The schema is available at: http://dublincore.org/schemas/xmls/simpledc20020312.xsd

This and other schemas will be linked and described for readers at http://dublincore.org/schemas/

More information on the Open Archives Initiative is available at: http://www.openarchives.org


Stuart Weibel
Executive Director
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
OCLC Office of Research

Herbert Van de Sompel
Open Archives Initiative Executive
Digital Library Research & Prototyping
Los Alamos National Laboratory - Research Library

Thesaurus for Graphic Materials

I'm currently reading The Audiovisual Cataloging Current edited by Sandra K. Roe. It includes a paper giving an overview of the TGM.

"The Thesaurus for Graphic Materials I: Subject Terms (TGM I) provides a substantial body of terms for subject indexing of pictorial materials, particularly the large general collections of historical images"--I.A.

The other section of TGM is The Thesaurus for Graphic Materials II: Genre and Physical Characteristic Terms (TGM II). This section contains over 600 terms describing distinctive categories of material: an established class of pictorial types, a vantage point or method of projection, or intended purpose. Some indicate characteristics of an image's creator or a publication status or occasion. Others imply a subject but also designate a method of representation. Physical characteristic headings designate graphic materials distinguished by production processes or techniques, production stages or versions, instrument employed, markings, shape and size, and other physical aspects of graphic materials. (Adapted from the Scope and Purpose note)

Authority Records

A Handbook of Examples For Use in Authority Records Created By the NACO-Music Project by Michelle Koth provides guidance on fields 670, 667 and 675 in the MARC Authority format. Although done by the NACO-Music Project it's usefulness is not limited to music. This has been around since 1998, but I've only recently seen it. Maybe I though it was only for music.

"This handbook is a compilation of examples with explanations for creating citations for sources of information in the authority record. It does not encompass establishing the heading itself; only how to cite the sources in which information necessary to create the heading was found. The examples are not to be regarded as "rules." The fields that are affected are:

670: Source data found: includes information about the name or title represented in the 1XX field, including facts that contribute to the identification of the heading and that justify the choice of the form used as the 1XX heading and references to it.

667: Non-public general note: gives information of permanent value and general interest that is not necessarily taken from the item being cataloged.

675: Source data not found: lists consulted sources in which information about the 1XX heading might be expected to be found, but was not."--pref.

Texas Library Association Annual Conference

I'll not be at TLA this year. I'll miss seeing everybody and visiting with folks from all across Texas. Let me know how the TRGCC meeting goes. However, the LPI will have a booth there. My co-workers will be at booth 3043. Their exhibit displays a Youth Services and Children's program for public and school libraries named, "Explore! Fun with Science". Stop by the booth and tell them "Hi." Give them some good numbers to report to NASA. We have been trying for years to convince NASA that public libraries are educational institutions. All the education programs from NASA have excluded libraries and focused on the classroom. We have tried to let them know that the field of education outside the classroom is important also. They are srtarting to understand the leverage libraires have.

The Cataloging Calculator

The Cataloging Calculator by Kyle Banerjee is a very useful tool. It allows searching and display of LC Cutter, Geog. Cutter, Geog. Area Codes, Country Codes, Language Codes, AACR2 Abbrevs., and MARC Var. Fields information. It does use 3 frames, so on older machines it may be slow. Thanks Kyle, I use this often.

Classification

The U.S. Geological Survey Library Classification System is available on-line. M. Dewey developed this classification. (There is a dissertation there for someone.) If it is used it should be in field 084 with subfield 2 including "usgslcs"

Dewey Classification

There is an on-line Alphabetical Index to Sections which is fairly complete. I wouldn’t use it for actual number building, but as a starting place, it is pretty good. It could be used as is to class, in a rough way, Web pages. Thanks David A. Mundie, a nice piece of work.

AGRICOLA Subject Category Codes

These codes which go in field 072 are buried deep in the National Library of Agriculture's Web site. The Hierarchical View of AGRICOLA Subject Category Codes are a useful view of the system.

Introduction

This blog has been going on for more than a month now, so I guess it is time to introduce myself and my reasons for the blog.

I'm David Bigwood, the Assistant Manager for Library Services at the Lunar and Planetary Institute. That means I do all the cataloging here as well as other things. There is a very small staff here, my supervisor is a librarian but is mostly an administrator. There is no one else here who speaks librarian. The blog is one way I get to think and write about what concerns my professional life with others who may understand even better than I do.

I think we live in an exciting time for catalogers. With the Web, some folks are finding out that organization of information is important. There are also some fundamental changes in our thinking happening. In serials the idea of continuing resource, the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Description (FRBD), and content vs. carrier are some issues which will have a major impact on our work. I am trying to keep up with these and figure them out. This blog helps me work through the issues. I hope it does the same for others.

I do believe MARC/AACR as the only description method is in the past. There are other methods of description available and we should know of them and know when one of those are more suitable. The MARC Community Information format has a good bit of overlap with the Government Information Locator Service (GILS) for instance. We should be aware of what is happening in those communities and be able to advise them. We can save them a lot of work and make those tools better and more compatible with our needs as well. ONIX, the publishers' metadata standard for instance can save us much work if it can be easily moved into a MARC record. We can save them much confusion if they use the LC Name Authority file. This blog tries to help me keep up with other metadata standards.

The blog also is a place I can keep a record of what I found valuable and find it again quickly. Too often, I've tried to find something again and had a hard time. Now my thoughts will all be in one place.

It is fun learning the computer stuff and getting it up and running.

And my last reason for starting the blog is that there was not one for catalogers.

If you know of an item which should be mentioned please pass it on. Thanks.

Dublin Core

This just in from the DC folks:

On behalf of the Managing Director, I would like to announce the availability for review and public comment of proposals from three DCMI working groups to the DCMI Usage Board.

Under the Usage Board Administrative Processes, proposals for new elements or element qualifiers submitted to the Board are posted on DC-General for a public comment period of one month. Public comment is open for this document until 10 May 2002. Comments should be sent to DC-General with the title of the document in the subject, as in:

Subject: [UB Proposal "Physical Object"]

The new proposals include one from the DCMI Type Working Group:

1. Physical Object (for the DCMI Type Vocabulary)

One proposal from the DCMI Citation Working Group:

1. Citation (refinement for Identifier)

Six proposals from the DCMI Libraries Working Group:

1. Holding Location (new element)

2. Accepted (refinement for Date)

3. Captured (refinement for Date)

4. Copyright (refinement for Date)

5. Submitted (refinement for Date)

6. Version (refinement for Description)

Tom Baker

Not Cataloging Related

What a strange-networked world we live in. I'm currently reading The Information Professional's Guide to Career Development Online. The foreword is written by Priscilla K. Shontz. Even though we have never met, I recognize the name. I’ve seen it in print and online. She runs the LIScareer Web site. What struck me at the end of the foreword was the fact she works across town. Granted Houston is a large town to cross but surely, we have been at the same events. The TLA district 8 conference, AMIGOS training, maybe she has even taken the Explore! Fun With Science training offered to librarians by my place of employment, the Lunar and Planetary Institute. How strange to find someone online and then find out she is local.

UCLA Film and Television Archive Cataloging

Martha Yee announced that: The UCLA Film and Television Archive records are available for searching over the Internet, but full MARC records cannot be downloaded.

NOTE: Be sure to select the Film and Television Archive database before every search.

The UCLA Film and Television Archive was founded in the late 1960s. It is now the largest university-based repository of original film and television materials in the world. Its catalog currently contains nearly 150,000 titles. As part of its mission, the archive collects and preserves motion pictures and broadcast programming, and works to advance public understanding and appreciation of moving image media. The archive also supports scholarly research and media production, explores how new technologies can contribute to preservation and restoration, and educates and trains archivists. As film and television play a greater role in shaping our culture, the work of the archive increases in importance.

Dublin Core & Learning Object Metadata

The article by Erik Duval, Wayne Hodgins, Stuart Sutton and Stuart L. Weibel Metadata Principles and Practicalities discusses the common ground between DC and LOM and the necessarily for interoperability and the Lego approach to metadata.

"The rapid changes in the means of information access occasioned by the emergence of the World Wide Web have spawned an upheaval in the means of describing and managing information resources. Metadata is a primary tool in this work, and an important link in the value chain of knowledge economies. Yet there is much confusion about how metadata should be integrated into information systems. How is it to be created or extended? Who will manage it? How can it be used and exchanged? Whence comes its authority? Can different metadata standards be used together in a given environment? These and related questions motivate this paper."--introduction.

Collection Level Description

In the UK a survey of collection level description practices conducted by UKLON and CIMI is available in the Summary Report on Survey Questionnaire

Web Titles

An interesting paper with implications for chief source of information in cataloging Web sites What is the title of a Web page? A study of Webography practice by Timothy C. Craven.

"Few style guides recommend a specific source for citing the title of a Web page that is not a duplicate of a printed format. Sixteen Web bibliographies were analyzed for uses of two different recommended sources: (1) the tagged title; (2) the title as it would appear to be from viewing the beginning of the page in the browser (apparent title). In all sixteen, the proportion of tagged titles was much less than that of apparent titles, and only rarely did the bibliography title match the tagged title and not the apparent title. Convenience of copying may partly explain the preference for the apparent title. Contrary to expectation, correlation between proportion of valid links in a bibliography and proportion of accurately reproduced apparent titles was slightly negative."--from the abstract.

RSS

Introduction to RSS is a short, 3 page, introduction. It has links to some tools for display and creation of RSS. I can see some use for this in a library setting, but I'm not yet savvy enough to set one up for us.